Dress Me
by only here in your arms
Summary: Eli is coerced into going with Clare as she finds the perfect prom dress. Clare makes a deal with Eli though. He can pick three dresses and so will she. And with that, watching Clare try on prom dresses just got a little more interesting. ONE SHOT.


**I am all over one shots right now and I've gotten so inspired since the beautiful finale. I cranked this one shot out in a few hours and I'm in LOVE with it. I hope you will be too. Please review and tell me what you think! Don't be a quiet reader!**

**Tweet me at (hereinyourarms_) and if Tumblr's more your thing, follow me at returntomemysunandstars . tumblr . com.**

**And if you're interested in seeing the dresses, the link will be on my profile. The dresses are in order of how they appear in the story.**

**THIS IS A ONE SHOT.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**

* * *

"Clare, this is _not_ how I want to spend my Saturday."

"But Alli's busy with homework and Jenna's doing some volunteer thing, Katie's hanging out with Jake! Come on Eli, you'll have to match the dress anyways so why not help me pick it out?"

I groaned, saving a document I was working on, and sitting back in my chair. "Clare, I don't really want to have to sit around and wait for you to try on dresses. And it's going to take forever. I love you and all but how about you text me pictures of you wearing the dress and I'll say what I think."

"A picture doesn't suffice, Eli," she replied to me in her demanding tone that I can't take seriously. I can just imagine her with her hand in her hip, walking back and forth in her room. "Besides, I won't be taking a picture of myself in front of a mirror for a very long time, thank you very much."

I started laughing, thinking back to when she told me about the first time. "Aw come on Clare, at least you'll be dressed. Or…you know…you could just snap a quick picture to send to me so I'll have something to look at."

"You're on thin ice Goldsworthy," she warned. She was bluffing, I knew it. "Please Eli, I'll make it worth your while. You can pick out dresses for me to try on too."

Now the idea of watching Clare spin around in frilly dresses was a lot better. I started to imagine what she'd look like in my less than modest choices, ones that she'd never ever look back at twice. I smirked to myself. This'll be fun. "Okay," I finally said and I heard her squeal. "We're getting food afterwards though, I'm starving."

"Whatever you want!" she replied to me happily. "Pick me up soon?"

* * *

We walked hand in hand towards the dress store, Clare telling me about an email she got from her sister Darcy who was in Africa. "Apparently she met this guy who's perfect for her and maybe she'll take him home on Christmas to meet us. But I doubt it. For the last few years she's been saying she'll be here for my birthday, Christmas, Mom's birthday, but nothing. So I'm not holding my breath. But it was just so nice to get an email from her!"

Clare was always smiley when she talked about Darcy. From conversations we've had in the past I knew that she was really sad that her sister wasn't with her through their parents' divorce and then their mom's marriage. Also, a few days after Clare talked to the police about Asher Nutsack, she cried in my arms, letting her feelings out. She mentioned Darcy, how Darcy went through something even worse than she did, and I convinced her to tell Darcy through email.

Months later, at the present moment, everything was great between us. With Romeo and Jules over and my NYU application already turned in, I had a lot of extra time. Sometimes I'd stay with her after school while she finished the new edition of the Degrassi Daily or I'd just go to Adam's place to play video games. It was a nice difference from the hectic beginning of senior year.

And now prom is coming up and Clare and Cece convinced me that I should go to it and not be a waiter. Cece kept talking about wanting to see me in a formal suit and a boutonniere and Clare said that with me possibly being gone during her senior prom, this would be our only opportunity. So I caved. I couldn't say no to Clare when she's pouting.

We walked into the dress store and I immediately looked around. I didn't recognize anyone there and realized I was the only guy. Clare pulled me towards racks of dresses and I put my hands in my pockets, trying to think of our deal.

"Look around, we can both pick our three favorites and I'll meet you in the dressing room?"

I nodded and she floated away, so happy to be getting the chance to look at dresses. I went the other direction and started examining them.

After looking at a few racks of dresses I just couldn't figure out what was special about them. They were different colors, some of them looked different, but they were dresses. None of them appealed to me in any way and even though I was trying to imagine Clare in them, all I thought was how none of these dresses were beautiful enough for Clare.

I went to another part of the store and immediately saw the difference from the ones I just saw to these ones. These weren't very long dresses. I held one up and imagined Clare in them, realizing they'd end at the knee or above her knee.

And now things were more interesting.

* * *

As expected I finished picking out three dresses before Clare even got one. So I waited for her in the dressing room. Thank goodness the dressing rooms were divided so I managed to get one room where there was a separate area for Clare to try on the dresses and come outside to show me but we didn't have to be around the other people trying dresses.

After watching a full episode of one of my favorite shows on my phone, Clare finally walked into the room holding light colored dresses over her arm.

"I'm sorry!" she said to me quickly. "I finally had three and then I saw this other one and I couldn't decide so now I have four."

I laughed a little bit and assured her, "Clare, it's okay. Do you want to start trying them on?"

She nodded excitedly. "How about we alternate? My dress then your dress?"

I agreed and she quickly went on to try the first dress. I could hear her unzipping and zipping and I tried not to think about how she looked as she took off her clothes but with her changing just behind a door, what else could I think about?

She finally emerged, wearing a light purple dress with it only on one shoulder. The fabric looked all bunched up, especially right under her chest. It reminded me of the togas that the ancient Greeks used to wear.

"So?" she twirled around in the dress and I only stopped looking at how great her boobs looked when she snapped her finger.

"It's nice," I said awkwardly.

"Nice?" she whined. "That's all?"

"I don't know how else to react," I admitted. "It's a nice color, it's a nice…style, damn Clare, you had to have known I'd be shit at this."

Clare rolled her eyes and held out her hand. "I'll try on your first dress."

I smirked, handing her the first dress I had picked. She examined it before walking into the dressing area and I heard her groan. I chuckled as she started switching dresses and I knew that she was done when I heard a loud "NO WAY!" behind the door.

"Come on out, Edwards," I teased. I leaned my elbows on my knees and eagerly waited for her to exit. Once she did I didn't look at her unimpressed face. All I was looking at was Clare in this tight black dress that had lace all above her chest and on the sides of her waist. Her skin was showing through the transparent lace and I couldn't help biting my lip.

"No, this is practically lingerie," was all she said before grabbing one of her choices and storming back into the dressing room.

We fought during the next two choices. Her second pick was a teal colored one and I think it was lacy, I couldn't really tell since the lace was the same color as the fabric underneath it. But when I asked her what that frilly part at the neck was, she rolled her eyes and asked me for my second choice. But she walked out of the dressing room, arms crossed over her chest. I picked out a red dress for her. This time it wasn't as skin tight but the middle part of the dress from the neck to her waist, right between her breasts, was lacy. I could see that she hadn't taken her bra off and I imagined that if she had, I'd see a lot of her chest.

"Do you really want other people to see that much of my boobs?" she had asked, hands on her hips.

My eyes widened at the realization that _hell no! _I certainly didn't want people at school seeing so much of her chest. So I practically pushed her back into the dressing room with her third pick in hand.

Her third choice was a little surprising to me. Though the color was definitely her style, the length was not. It wasn't a tight dress, it was flowy but ended mid thigh. There was some jewel embellishments around her chest and although I thought it was out of Clare's comfort zone with it being so short, she was spinning around in it like a princess.

"I love it," I told her honestly, moving to stand behind her. "You look beautiful. If Grade 11's could win prom queen, you'd win hands down."

She turned her head to kiss me and I tried to deepen it but she moved away and took the last dress from the bench I was sitting on.

I was happy not to have heard some kind of annoyed sound from her when she had the dress on and when she stepped out, I was surprised to see her smiling.

"Wow," she admired herself in the mirror beside me. "The color, the style…" she turned to look at the back of the dress and then back around. She picked up the end of the dress and smiled. "You have a thing for lace."

"I do," I winked. The dress was tight at the top but the bottom of it was flared out. It was past her knees and I knew I surprised her with that choice. The style was very 50's but the blue color made it something I knew Clare would love. It brought out her eyes too.

Clare leaned down to kiss me as I sat on my bench. I raised my hands to her waist, wanting to pull her closer and sit on my lap but instead she pushed my hands up. My fingers touched the skin on her back and I couldn't help but moan quietly.

"Help me unzip?" she sexily said against my mouth. I groaned and stood up, going to stand behind her. We faced the mirror as I slowly moved the zipper down, kissing her shoulder as I did so. Once I had, she let the dress fall to the ground.

She still had her bra and underwear on but this was the most exposed I'd ever seen her. Once I finally regained my composure from ogling her breasts, I saw her smirking in the mirror. "What?" I asked, kissing her ear.

Clare turned her head to me and murmered in my ear. "You have a thing for lace."

Her bra was lined with lace, as was her underwear, and I had to take a slight step back so she wouldn't be able to feel my problem right against her ass. I went to pick up the final dress, Clare's fourth choice, and saw that there was no zipper. So I moved it over her head, letting her put her arms in the correct holes before slowly moving the dress down over her waist. I admired her backside right as I lowered the dress fully.

Clare's back was mostly exposed by the dress and I ran my hands over the skin before placing them over her waist. She reached around her back and when I saw her going to undo the clasp of her bra, I held her hands.

"What are you doing?" I asked, shocked.

"The dress isn't really for wearing a full bra," she said to me before unclasping it. She did some weird, magic thing of managing to take her bra off without even having to take the dress off. How did she do that? She dropped the bra over to the bench and reached over to my hands placing them on her back.

"See," she said softly. "The back makes a heart."

I looked down and definitely saw what she was talking about. The fabric of the dress was cut out so that her skin managed to be in the shape of a heart. I traced my finger around the dress before leaning down to her ear again.

"This one's nice and all but I think the choice is between both of our third choices," I managed to say without stuttering like an idiot.

"I think you're right," she responds with a smile. "I'm gonna go get dressed and we can decide together."

I sat back down and watched Clare saunter back to the dressing room. Once she closed the door, I let out the biggest breath. Clare had let me see her almost naked and then let me dress her. As many times as I'd imagined Clare in front of me with barely any clothes, I hadn't thought of it being in a dressing room. I thought it'd be in one of our bedrooms in the midst of one of our heavy makeouts.

Then I remembered. We're not really a couple to do things the conventional way.

Clare hung up the two prom dress prospects on the wall and sat down beside me to look at them. I didn't really mind which one she picked. It was her dress anyways. No matter what dress she picked, she would be the most beautiful girl at prom. I smirked thinking of how some guys would be jealous of the fact that Clare was all mine.

"I can't choose," she put her hands over her face. "They're both beautiful."

"Not as beautiful as the one who'll be wearing them," I retorted.

"Thanks," she said jokingly. "But seriously, would you rather be wearing a light pink tie or a blue tie?"

I put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to me. "Clare, I won't pick your dress for you. Whatever dress you want, I'll match it. Even if it was a hot pink dress I'd match it. This night is for you, not me."

"It's for us," she reminded me. "Our first ever real dance together."

She was right. We've never been to a dance together where things actually went well. Vegas Night, she went with Fitz. _That_ didn't turn out well. She went to the spring dance while I crashed Morty. She went to prom with Jake but didn't dress up for it and I went as a waiter. There was that dance for the Ice Hounds earlier this year but that wasn't really a "dance" and Clare wasn't able to go.

This was our first real shot at a dance and Clare deserved for it to be perfect.

I heard her sigh beside me and she sat up straight. "The blue one," she finally said. "That's the one. It's perfect, it's gorgeous, and you picked it. That's the one."

"The one," I repeated happily.

* * *

Finally we left the store and Clare had the biggest smile on her face. I held her hand in mine and my other arm had her blue dress draped over it. She was so happy to have finally made her purchase and had found the perfect prom dress. I was happy for her too, don't' get me wrong, but I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there before someone from school saw me.

I went to go toward the exit when Clare stopped, stopping me with her. "What?" I asked her.

Clare was looking at something and I turned to the direction of her gaze, jaw dropping as I saw what she was looking at. "Clare, no."

"But, but, I need shoes to go with my dress!"

"_Clare_, we just spent two hours in that store!" I whined like a little kid.

"Come on," she said, stepping closer to me. Her hands went up around my neck and I could tell she was playing dirty. I kept trying to avoid her eyes, knowing I'd cave in a second if I looked down at her, but then she pressed a kiss to the sensitive part of my neck. I shuddered a little and my eyes closed as she peppered my neck with kisses.

"Please?" she whispered in my ear, bringing her tongue to the shell of it.

"Damn it," I muttered, surrendering to Clare's dirty game.

Smiling in victory, Clare pulled me into the shoe store. I received snickering looks from a group of guys just standing around in the middle of the mall and I tried to take my hand from Clare's grasp. She seemed to feel me pulling away from her and she looked around, her eyes falling on the laughing group of guys. Right in front of the shoe store, Clare practically threw herself at me, kissing me earnestly in a way that she'd never done in public.

But she was still playing her sly tricks, I could tell, so I kissed her back just as intensely. When we pulled away, the laughing guys were now gaping at us. Clare started pulling me again into the store and I managed to give the guys a glaring look, practically saying "Jealous?"

After she brought me into the store, I sat down and smiled as Clare looked around for shoes. She didn't expect me to give my opinions or anything, which I was grateful for since my taste for shoes is much less than my taste in shoes.

I think I fell asleep for a minute because when Clare came up to me again, I think I might've snored as I woke. "Well?" she asked me. She pointed down at the black high heels she wore and I nodded.

"They look great," I told her. "Are they comfortable?"

"Very," she smiled.

I stood up to stretch my back from having managed to sleep in an awkward position, only to be extremely unhappy when I saw Clare's height in those heels. She was looking at her shoes at a mirror level with her feet.

"No," I said sternly. "_No _way are you going to wear those shoes."

"Why?" she asked surprised. "You just said—"

"No, you're not wearing those. You can't be taller than me at prom!"


End file.
